The thing which I found most interesting in these lectures was the one on Still Life. Before this if I had saw a till Life painting I would think, just another beautifully boring scene of fruit and then just pass it by without fully looking at the details or considering that there was anything I could learn from this type of work. However, from attending this lecture I now see that there actually is a lot to be learned from each of these beautiful works. They can tell us about what might have been going on at that time and sometimes hod hidden meanings. This has taught me that you can have great beauty and still keep a strong message in work, that the beauty doesn’t always over power the meaning and that the meaning doesn’t always have to be incredibly obvious.
Key Posts
Documentation
1 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/5
2 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/171
3 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/893
4 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/916
5 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/699
Contextualisation
1 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/48
2 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/931
3 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/819
4 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/324
5 https://wordpress.com/post/wonderifimalice.wordpress.com/888
Remembering, remembering
Something which often intrigues me in my own day to day life is the point when I remember a dream, almost like a little flash back that occurs out of nowhere often leaving me questioning whether or not this occurrence actually happened or if it really was just a dream.
My earliest recollection of this as a child was one day I was outside helping my Granny in the garden when I suddenly saw this image of myself rolling around in sand (which was falling from the sky), the memory was so powerful that I just couldn’t figure it out. When I asked my Granny – ‘if sand ever fell from the sky’ to my surprise she answered YES; however, this was only one rare occasion when the wind blew sand from the Sahara or something. I don’t think I had ever been told about the Sahara thing so it was probably just a coincidence but it really set me thinking about how much of our dreams are influenced by things that we have heard and saw, and the official answer is of course every detail, but my dreams have been filled with so much randomness and mystery that I often wonder where on earth my brain got it from.
For me when I look back and try to remember dreams I’ve had in the past, I often remember the point I remembered them. The point of remembering is usually just as random as the dream itself, sometimes when I am in the shower, sometimes adding sugar to my morning coffee, and sometimes not until I try to fall asleep the following evening.
The following are a few photos inspired by the times which I remember, remembering a dream (mostly during making tea or coffee, guess it does make you more alert)
This one I remembered on the phone, and ended up telling the entire dream to my sister on the other end.
Maybe there was some correlation with the falling sugar that made me remember?
Outcome 2
This second outcome is about the very rare dreams that stick with us, more often than not the nightmares that give us irrational fears because of them. Sometimes we forget the entire dream except for one small detail which seems to stay with us for ages afterwards, to represent this I choose random phrases from the dream collection. When I showed my sister the ice melt painting which I had chosen to represent a random phrase from one of her dreams, she surprisingly said ‘ it actually looks like my dream’ – I’m not quite sure how but I feel that the phrases I choose to match with each image some how relate to each other .In summary the ice melt paintings represent the marks (i.e. phrases/feelings/fears) left behind after a dream.
Outcome 1
Above are the images before I edited them a little by increasing the contrast to make the paint more visible.
The main idea behind these is to show the random shapes and form that can be made by a dream, you can never recreate the same mark, in the same way you never have the exact same dream every time. Although some people have said they get recurring dreams they always mention that something changes each time – like the paint moves, always changing in shape and density. The fluidity of each image is fitting to the nature of how dreams come and go, how they happen out of no where and then they just slowly fade away the majority of time as if they never happened.
The written text included in the piece was taken from the many dreams I have collected from people over the past few months. I think the randomness of the dreams fit well with the random movement of the water.
Constellation
The most influential concept I have gained from Constellation was from the After Modernism study group with Jon Clarkson. In particular, when we were shown of how art can look very different in the way its displayed, i.e. in an image or on show in a museum or gallery. This was demonstrated when we looked at the same art work we saw in the lectures, in real life in London.
From this will think more carefully about the way I display my work (even in the photos or images I use in my blog) as I now realise that this can have a significant effect on how the work is perceived. I think that sometimes I have the tendency to make things look ‘prettier’ in the pictures than they really are. Sometimes that works but what I have now learnt is that its important not to get too carried away with the aesthetic of the image but always bare in mind what I am trying to say in my work and if this is being achieved.
Surrealism, Rene Magritte
I have always been interested in Magritte’s work, I like the mystery of it , it makes you feel uneasy almost as if you are looking straight into someone’s nightmare, or at someone having a night mare or very intense dream in this case. There is something terrifying about not actually knowing what is happening inside that persons head yet feeling the distress that might be happening. I have looked at several other surrealist painters as well as more of Magritte’s work, simply because many of their works have been influenced by dreams. I wanted to achieve some of this mystery in my own work, in that you aren’t exactly sure what you are looking at in the beginning.
GRASS Letters
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Processed with VSCO with acg preset
After spending a few days back in Northern Ireland, where I spent the majority of my time adventuring back through the forest trails I’ve known and loved for as long as I can remember and visiting all my favourite fields. I retuned to Cardiff feeling refreshed yet my longing to be among the trees and grass was even stronger – so I decided to write letters to/about the grass I missed. I had watched the 2010 movie ‘Letters to Juliet’ which had kind of started a fascination with love letters, so this was kind of like writing some form of a love letter.
I used a type writer for the lettering, I liked the contrast between the uniform letters with the messy grass strokes of watercolour.
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Processed with VSCO with acg preset
Processed with VSCO with acg preset
Constellation Reflective Text
After Modernism, Jon Clarkson: During this first study group I learnt so much about many of the most influential artists of the time, some whom I knew of already, others I knew their work but never fully understood what was meant by it and then there were other artists i had been previously completely unaware of. I learnt many new interesting things about each of the movements discussed and got a grasp of what each was really about, what motivated artists under that title to do their work. I found many of these artists were useful in developing my own work further and in helping find inspiration when I was a little stuck on what to do next. One of my biggest discoveries was that of an entire movement I never even knew existed – Fluxus, I was really intrigued by the work of these artists, it was so vastly different from anything I had ever seen before. John Cage was one of the Fluxus artists I was particularly excited by, and although his work is nothing like my own, nor do I see my work heading in that direction at any time soon, it has however, opened my mind to be more adventurous and to let go of my fears of people thinking my art is too ‘weird’- I want to incorporate some of the boldness I saw in Fluxus.
I was also very interested in what we were shown of how art can look very different in the way its displayed, i.e. in an image or on show in a museum or gallery, I will think more carefully about the way I display my work (even in the photos or images I use in my blog) as I now realise that this can have a significant effect on how the work is perceived. I think that sometimes I have the tendency to make things look ‘prettier’ in the pictures than they really are, and sometimes that works but what I have now learnt is that its important not to get too carried away with the aesthetic of the image and focus more on the actual artwork and what it has to say.
Key Note Lectures: I thoroughly enjoined the keynote lectures as a whole,probably my favourite art of Constellation this year. These lectures gave an opportunity to hear and learn from interesting speakers about very relevant topics. The variety of topics and speakers made for an exciting experience due to the individual delivery style of each of the lectures. I looked forward to attending these each week and because they lasted only one session this one sitting contained all the key information in a short snappy way, and I find I remember and thus learn best this in way. I also found it particularly useful to make my own personal notes from these and I have found myself going back to these several times in order to help me develop my work.The lecture which particularly stood out for me was ‘Teenage Kicks’, I was amazed by the history of is such an every day item (DR. Marten Boots) and how it could hold such vastly different meanings to different cultures through the years – I was introduced to the concept of the ‘Cultural Biography of Things’ ( Kopyloff, 1986). This made me consider how other items may hold certain meanings to some and also about the way people identify themselves to be part of a certain sub culture, this is something I hope to explore in my work in the future.
The lecture on the Sonic Arts was another I found especially interesting, mainly because before this time I had no previous knowledge of Sonic Arts or what it was about. As I have studied piano for a number of years I already had a basic understanding of the musical aspect however, I had never before considered using music in a way which would be considered art. I was really inspired by the examples of sonic art’ performances we were shown, and I was amazed at just how powerful sound could be.
I think having experienced being in an interdisciplinary group really broadened my view on the things being discussed in the lectures and study groups. Although it seems very cliché those students in subjects such as Architectural Design Technology and Graphic Design brought a much more practical/clinical approach to things being discussed – often very different to the Fine Artists I am used to. I think it is important no matter what subject you study, to hear and appreciate opinions from a sightly different perspective. I really do believe this aspect of Constellation benefited me and my practise in Fine Art a great deal, and from this I now have the contacts that I could collaborate with another course member or ask them for advice on something I needed a different approach on as well as developing my own personal ability to think from another angle
In terms of my academic writing ability I have noticed some improvement, I think this is down to the support given in the study groups when everything was carefully talked through with us so it was clear what needed to be achieved . I also think that my writing has improved due to the diverse range of subject related reading material and video interviews etc. that I read and watched, which were necessary to analyse for the study groups each week. It was helpful that the suggestions for each week were not always just reading an academic text but that videos were also included, this meant the reading did not become too tedious.
As a whole I feel I have learnt a lot from this aspect of the course, Constellation was both explorative and informative, it has really opened my eyes to many things I had not been previously aware of and made me think in a way which will help me to be more creative when problems arise, and given me many interesting ideas of where I might take my work in the future.
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